What Goes Around
by dreamflower02
Summary: Sometimes history repeats itself...(Written for March 25, 2011 Back-to-Middle-earth Challenge.) One-shot; book-verse.


(Written for March 25, 2011 Back-to-Middle-earth Challenge.)

 _Today's Challenge:_

 _She knelt on the floor, carefully picking up the shards of glass. Why did it have to be this one that broke?_

Start a story with these two lines and answer the question of what was once broken. Or create a poem or piece of art that pictures this scene.

Sometimes history repeats itself...

 **What Goes Around**

She knelt on the floor, carefully picking up the shards of glass. Why did it have to be _this_ that broke? Primrose shook her head sadly, and looked down at her son, who stood before her with his grey eyes swimming in tears. "I'm sorry, Mummy, I didn't mean to break it."

"You didn't mean to break it, but you did mean to handle it by yourself without permission."

He turned bright red, and stared at his feet. "I just wanted a look."

She gave a sigh as she placed the shattered fragments of the lens on her father-in-law's desk, and then the separate parts of the wooden casing. "I will not punish you. It is your grandfather's spyglass. You will tell him what you did, and he will set your punishment, Theodas Brandybuck." Merry would not give his grandson a severe punishment- he was a very indulgent grandparent, but she knew how hard it would be for Theodas to see the disappointment in Merry's face, and the sorrow over the broken spyglass. Her own father would not be happy either; the Took was nearly as fond of that spyglass as his older cousin.

"Can't you tell him, mummy?" Theo asked plaintively.

"Tell me what?" The Master of Buckland entered his study, and the Thain was right behind him.

"What have you done, Theo?" Pippin asked.

The child gulped, and looked up at his mother for support. She kept her gaze unyielding and implacable. With a sigh, he gazed down at his feet once more.

"I broke the spyglass..." he whispered, and waited miserably for his doom to fall.

There was a brief moment of silence, and then a most unexpected sound, the last sound either Primrose or Theodas expected: a chuckle, and then two chuckles.

Theodas looked up to see both his grandfathers laughing.

"Ah, Pippin!" Merry said. "What goes around comes around."

"It would seem so, Merry."

Merry went and sat down in his big chair behind the desk, and motioned the lad to come to him. He sat Theo on his knee, and said, "Do you wonder why your Grandper* and I find this so amusing?"

Theo nodded, still uncertain of what would come of his mishap.

"Because when the Thain and I were just little fry ourselves- he was about your age, in fact, while I was a bit older- we were responsible for breaking a spyglass that belonged to your Great-Grandfather Saradoc."

"But I thought that was his spyglass, Gaffer Merry."

"Yes. That was the spyglass that I got to replace the one we broke. It took me years and years to find a new one for him. In fact, I was a grown-up hobbit, and I found it and bought it for him in the King's City after our journey long ago**."

"Oh. Would you tell me about it?"

"Do you deserve a story right now, Theo?"

His crime recalled to him, Theo blushed and hung his head.

"We'll tell you all about it another time. Right now we must decide on your punishment." Merry picked up the casing, and examined it. It appeared that it had simply come apart. The real problem was the shattered lens. "I believe that this can be fixed, Theo, but not in the Shire. Here is your punishment. _You_ will take the broken parts and see to their mending. I suggest that you send them to Uncle Gimli in Aglarond. But _you_ will box them up. _You_ will earn the money for the message. And until _you_ have seen to it, and I receive it back from your hands, you may no longer come into my study unless one of your parents brings you in here."

"But Gaffer Merry! That will take forever!"

"It could take as long as a year, perhaps. Pippin and I broke the first spyglass completely by accident- we had permission to handle it. You had no such permission, and so you must bear the blame yourself."

"Oh."

"Now I suggest you go along with your mum, and tell your da what you've done. They will help you decide how you will earn the money to see to the repair of that spyglass. And fetch along a box to put the pieces in."

He slid the child gently off his lap, and watched him walk dejectedly out of the Master's study at his mother's side, then turned to glance at the broken parts of the spyglass on his desk with a sigh.

Pippin shook his head. "You were harder on him than Uncle Sara was on us. I'm surprised at you."

"As I told him, we did it by accident. Da was standing right there when it happened. He did not have permission to touch it by himself. And," added Merry, "My punishment for him is much milder than the one I imposed on myself to replace the original spyglass!"

Pippin laughed. "That's quite true. And at least you gave him some guidance as to how to go about it. Gimli will be sad to see that it's been broken."

"I suspect," said Merry, "that he will find it quite as ironic as we did." The two exchanged a look, and once more broke out into laughter. "As I said, Pip, 'what goes around comes around'!"

-oo000oo-

*This is a nod to one of my favorite authors. In Elanor's "A Secret Gate" she has Pippin's grandchildren call him "Grandper" (short for "Grandfather Peregrin").

** My story, "A Different Kind of Quest" tells of how the original spyglass was broken, and describes among other things, Merry's quest to replace it.


End file.
